Room 20 at the National Portrait Gallery

The Road to Reform

This largest room on the top floor has two large group portraits dealing with reform dominating the display. On the end wall is the House of Commons, 1833, commemorating the passing of the Great Reform Act in 1832, whilst the Anti-Slavery Convention, 1840 dominates another wall, with a portrait of Wilberforce closeby. On the wall opposite there is a full-length portrait of the parliamentary reformer Sir Frances Burdett, one of a number of portraits in the room by Sir Thomas Lawrence. There is also a striking two-tier plinth of white marble busts at the entrance to the room.